“Vegr yfir fior. Honor above life. The first whistle cut into the air from our right, warning us to get ready and I closed my eyes, feeling the steadiness of the earth beneath my feet. The sounds of battle rushing toward us bled together as the deep-throated prayers of my clansmen rose up around me like smoke from a wildfire. I let the words march out under my breath, asking Sigr to guard me. To help me bring down his enemies.”

As a member of the Aska clan, seventeen-year-old Eelyn has spent her entire life learning how to be a warrior—preparing for the traditional battle against the enemy clan. For many centuries, the gods of the Riki and the Aska have been at war, so the people battle it out every five years on behalf of their gods. This time is different for Eelyn, though. She has been waiting for five long years to avenge the death of her brother, who fell off of a cliff in front of Eelyn during the last battle against the Riki. So when Eelyn sees her dead brother, Iri, fighting with the Riki in battle, she is forced to question everything she thought she knew. In a moment of uncertainty, Eelyn is captured by the Riki and must spend the winter in their village, living among the enemy in the place her brother now calls home. Eelyn desperately longs to get back to her clan and her family, but there is no way for her to do so. When a third clan—one even more brutal than the others—attacks the Riki village, Eelyn must convince the Riki and the Aska to put their differences behind them and work together to defeat the new enemy.

“Young’s SKY IN THE DEEP is full of bloody action and eternal feuds, but it is Eelyn’s halting, painful transformation and the tender depictions of loving human bonds in all their iterations that make this novel truly ond eldr: “breathe fire.” —Shelf Awareness